Hi my name is Terry Grimm I have been a civil war collector for over 35 years . Aim new to this message board but I can see there is allot of good information on this sight .So I wood like to pass on some information to the people like my safe that pick up these old guns and can almost fell the history in there hands. Well as they say it wood be awesome to be able to shoot a original spencer. Well the very first thane is to check out your old spencer with a good gunsmith make sure it is safe to shoot. Now if you are converting a 1865 or later you well only need a few parts (1) A CENTER FIRE BREACH BLOCK price about $200. (2) A SPENCER MAGAZIRE FOLLOWER FOR CENTER FIRE price about $40.00. Now check out all other parts like extractor and spring, hammer for wear replace any parts that you cant fixe. Now if working with the M 1860 do all the above. I aim working on up dating my 1864 spencer carbine with a lower breach block of the 1865. All the above parts can be found at ( S&S FIREARMS) they have a lot of original parts for spencer's . Now if your looking for ammunition take a look at TEN-X AMMUNITION they have 56 50 in stock 50 to the box. And for the money go to TEN-X were as BUFFALO ARMS CO. you only get 20 in the box. And if you wont to do your reloading check out TRACK OF THE WOLF they have 56 50 brass.